All About Links Interview With Link Building Ex

All About Links Interview With Link Building Expert , Bob Gladstein

by: Julia Hyde

Julia: Welcome Bob. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions about link building. Iกm going to jump right in ask you why Web sites need links?
Bob: There are a number of reasons to have links pointing to your site. But let’s start with the reason they were created in the first place. The original purpose of the Internet was to enable the sharing of information. For example, if a scholarly paper existed on a server at the University of California, and a professor at Oxford wanted to read it, the Internet made that instantly possible. Now, if the Oxford professor had a paper that referenced information from the UC paper, they could link directly to that other document rather than just quoting from it. So a hyperlink was intended as a way of connecting data, ideas, and references together. It’s like saying, ขif you’d like further information on this topic, here’s a place to find it.ข
When the Google search engine was created, its developers took this into account. And drew the conclusion that a link was an indication that the page being linked to was relevant to some particular subjectmatter.
So that’s a rather long introduction to a short answer to your question. Web sites need links because they send traffic that’s already targeted to their subject matter to other sites, and because they help the search engines determine both their theme and what the web as a community deems their importance to be. Basically (although not absolutely), the more links that point to a page, the more relevant that page is determined to be. In addition, links are now considered the most reliable way (apart from paying) to get a site into the search engines in the first place.
While both Google and Yahoo allow you to submit a site to their index, it’s clear that the best way to get the search engines to pay attention to your site is to get a page that their spiders already know about to link to yours. The spiders then follow that link to your site, and add it to their index.
Julia: Thanks, Bob. But there are different types of links aren’t there? Can you explain differences?
Bob: As we discussed in the previous question, there are text links from other sites. Some of these are reciprocal (that is, they link to you and you link back to them) and others are oneway (the owner of the other site decides, for whatever reason, to link to your site and doesn’t expect you to link back).There are also image links: banners, buttons, etc. These have the advantage of standing out visually from the rest of the page, but many people have become immune to the standard banner ad and just ignore them, because it’s assumed they’re just advertisements, and as such, not necessarily relevant to the page on which they appear.
Then there are directory listings, where a link to your site appears on a page containing links to numerous other sites in what the directory editor has determined to be your particular niche.
An important thing to consider regarding getting a link is the code behind it. If your primary concern is to send traffic to your site, this isn’t important. In that case, what you need to think about is whether the link is going to send the right people to you. But if you want the link to be recognized by the search engines and to contribute to your ranking in searches, you need the link to be in simple HTML, without JavaScript or other code that will hide the link from search engine spiders.
There are also links that won’t help you at all, or will put you in danger of losing your position on the search engines. Guestbook spam, the practice of going to a site’s guest book area and posting a message like ขNice site. Come visit mine, at…ข will do you no good. The search engines know that such links carry no value, and just ignore them. The same is true for freeforall links pages, on which you can immediately add a link to any site, without any editorial oversight.
Link farms are a far more dangerous subject. These are networks of sites that are heavily crosslinked and offer to link to you as long as you link back into the network, or host a page on your site that serves as a directory of sites that the link farm has linked to. The idea here is to abuse the power search engines give to links by exponentially increasing the number of links to your site, without regard for theme or value. You link into the farm, and you have hundreds, perhaps thousands of links pointing back to you. But the links are only there to increase link popularity. The sites on which the links reside are not intended to actually be viewed by people; they’re just intended to give search engine spiders the mistaken impression that your site is extraordinarily popular.
Julia: So, whatกs the best way to get legitimate and relevant sites to link to yours?
Bob: Before you can get a site to link to yours, you first have to find it. You need to do research on the subjectmatter of your site by searching on the keywords you hope people will use to find it. The results of those searches will give you a list of sites that are already performing well for those keywords. You should then study those sites, so that you can write to the webmaster and request a link in such a way that demonstrates that you understand the purpose of their site. And give reasons as to why you think their audience will find your site of interest.
You can buy links from sites as well, sometimes on a single page, and sometimes all across the site. These are just like any other form of advertising. So before you part with your money you need to determine if they’re worth the purchase price by deciding if they’ll send you enough of the right traffic. That’s why sites that offer the opportunity to buy links will make claims about how much traffic they get and how their audience is made up of ขdecision makers.ข
Finally, there are directories, which normally require you to drill down to find the most relevant category for your listing. You can then (depending on the directory) either contact them with your information, or fill out a form on the directory itself and request a listing.
Julia: What would you say to Web site owners who are reluctant to use links because they think it will take people away from their site?
Bob: For one thing, a Web site without any offsite links is a dead end, and there is some evidence to suggest that search engines view sites that don’t link out as being less valuable.
Unless you’re willing to pay, you may have a hard time convincing people to link to you if you’re not planning on linking back to them. But it’s still possible, especially if you’ve got content that’s so good people will want to link to you anyway, but it’s definitely harder to get oneway links than reciprocal ones. I’m not suggesting that people link directly to their competitors. The idea is to link to sites that complement the content that you’re providing. By doing so, you’re contributing to the impression that your site is an authority on your theme: not only do you have great information, but you have links to other sources of information. That’s another reason for people to come back to your site more often. And if you’re still worried about sending people away from your site and never seeing them again, you can set your offsite links to open in a new window, by adding target=ข_blankข to the code for the link. If you do this, however, it’s a good idea for usability purposes to let people know that the link will open in a new window. Otherwise, people who have their browser windows maximized may not realize what’s happened, and should they try to get back to your site by hitting their back button they’re likely to be confused when it fails to take them anywhere.
Julia: We often hear the term กAnchor textก. Can your explain what this means and why itกs important?
Bob: Anchor text is the part of a text link that’s visible on the page. On a Web page, that would look like this: Search Engine Marketing and Copywriting Services. ขSearch Engine Marketing and Copywriting Servicesข is the anchor text. What’s important about it is that it tells both the user and the search engine spider what the page the link points to is about. In a search engine optimization project, getting links to your site that use your keywords in the anchor text helps to get your page to rank higher for those keywords. That’s why it’s important to have something other than ขclick hereข as anchor text.The power of anchor text can be seen by the example of the practice of ขGooglebombing,ข in which numerous sites will link to a particular page using the same anchor text. If enough sites do it, Google will rank that page at the top of its listings for searches on that text. George W. Bush’ biography page on the site of the White House is still number one in Google for the query ขmiserable failureข about half a year after that particular Googlebomb was created. Whether or not you personally agree that those words do a good job of describing Mr. Bush, Google accepts what it sees as the opinion of the general online community. If enough pages tell Google that miserable failure George W. Bush, then as far as Google is concerned, it must be true.
Julia: Another thing we hear a lot about is Pagerank™—a tool webmasters often use to determine whether a site is worth linking to or not. What does this mean?
Bob: PageRank (not to be confused with ขpage rankข) is a part of Google’s algorithm for ranking pages. There are numerous theories as to how it’s calculated, but only Google knows for certain. In any case, that’s not important to this discussion. What matters is that PageRank is a measure of the value of a page based on the links pointing to it, the value of the pages on which those links reside,and the number of other links that are on those pages. It’s strictly numerical, and has absolutely nothing to do with relevance or value to the reader. In other words, if I have a page about Shakespeare, and I link to two pages, one about Shakespeare, and the other about the care and feeding of parakeets, the same amount of PageRank will be passed to both of those pages. The fact that one of those pages is about the same subject as my page does not enter into the calculation.
You can see an estimation of the PageRank of a given page if you have the Google toolbar installed. But it’s important to keep in mind that PageRank is not everything, nor is it the most important thing. It’s one of many factors Google takes into account when it ranks pages for queries, and it’s not at all uncommon to see that a site that ranks on the top of a SERP (search engine results page) has a lower PageRank than the pages below it on the SERP.
One of the reasons people believe that PageRank is important is that if you do a backlink check in Google by typing ขlink:www.site.comข in the search box, you’ll generally (but not absolutely) only see pages that link to the URL in question and have a PageRank of 4/10 or higher. People have taken this to mean that a link from a page with a lower PR doesn’t count, and that simply isn’t true. It’s true that, all other things being equal, the higher the PR of a page linking to yours, the more PR it’s going to pass to your page, but as I said, PR is just one aspect of Google’s algorithm, and every link apart from the troublesome ones we spoke of earlier has some value.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that a page that shows a PR of 2/10 in the toolbar today may have a 5/10 or 6/10 a few months from now.When I’m looking for sites from which I may wish to request links, the only time what I see in the toolbar matters to me is when I see that it has no PageRank at all. Assuming the site isn’t new, that can sometimes be an indication that the site has done something which caused Google to demote it. That is, it may be what Google refers to as a ขbad neighborhood,ข and as such, you should be extra careful in checking it out before you agree to link back to it.
Julia: Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, Bob! I hope you all will check out Bobกs site at www.raisemyrank.com for more information about his company.

About The Author

Julia is an independent copywriter specializing in advertising and search engine marketing services. To learn more about how Julia can help boost your companyกs profits visit her site at www.juliahyde.com. You may also like to sign up for Marketing Works! Juliaกs monthly ezine. Visit her website or email Julia for details.

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 22, 2004

by Julia Hyde

Creating Sales Conversations

Creating Sales Conversations

by: Charlie Cook

Youกve got a great product or service that beats the competition by miles. Once you get in front of people or get them on the phone, they’re sold. The only problem is you’re not getting enough of those initial conversations with prospects started so you can convert them to clients. Instead of having your phone ringing of the hook with requests, you feel like your firm is the best kept secret in your industry.

Sound familiar?

Bob called from Alabama with just this problem. His company manufactures creative, attractive and safe playgrounds. Lately, sales have been flat, at best, and despite having an outstanding product, his company isn’t generating as many sales as heกd like. Bob wanted to know how to start more conversations so he can jump start sales.

Want more conversations with prospects so you can sell your products and services?

The first step to starting a conversation with someone is to get his or her attention. In school, you raised your hand and eventually the teacher called on you of course, that is what the teacher was paid to do. When you’re marketing your products or services, you can’t just raise your hand and expect prospects to call on you. Running an ad or having a web site that describes your products or services is the equivalent of raising your hand. It may have worked in the classroom, but it doesn’t work in the marketplace.

When you focus your marketing on yourself, your firm or your products, it rarely works to get attention or start a conversation. To engage prospects and get them to contact you, you need to focus on their needs and wants.

Bob explained that he had three different markets: day care centers, municipal parks departments and architects and each has different concerns. Parks departments concern is durability and the safety of the materials used, day care centers is the creative design.

As Bob clearly understands, each target market has their own unique set of interests. These interests should be the focus his marketing effort, not the company name, credentials or product production techniques. Bob could be using these insights to create a marketing message or set of marketing messages to get the attention of prospects.

Through your experience you have a good idea of your prospectsก and your clientsก concerns and interests. Take a minute to jot down the top three concerns of each of your target markets. Use this information to engage prospects in conversation.

If a stranger walked into your office, whatกs the first thing youกd do? Youกd say something like, กHow can I help you?ก Not surprisingly, the same technique works wonders when you combine it with your knowledge of prospectsก concerns. Instead of touting your credentials or describing your products, lead with a question to start a conversation.

Bob could ask, กWant to learn more about improving the safety and durability of your playgrounds?ก Or a marketing coach might ask, กWant to learn more about attracting a steady stream of clients?ก Or the line that suckers me every time as an audiophile is, กWant to learn how to make your stereo sound like a live performance?ก

When we’re one on one, facetoface, starting a conversation comes naturally to most of us. Beginning with a handful of questions, you can quickly learn what someone wants and how you can help them. Focus on your prospectsก concerns with a question or two and youกll get their attention. Offer them something they want and theyกll contact you.

One of the biggest mistakes people make in marketing their business is to over emphasize closing the sale. What you want to do is open the door to new prospects, start a conversation and help them get what they want. Focus on starting more conversations with your marketing and youกll end up closing many more sales.

About The Author

2004 © In Mind Communications, LLC. All rights reserved.

The author, Charlie Cook, helps service professionals and small business owners attract more clients and be more successful. Sign up for the Free Marketing Plan eBook, ก7 Steps to get more clients and grow your businessก at http://www.marketingforsuccess.com

[email protected]

This article was posted on October 21, 2004

by Charlie Cook

Don’t Forget B.O.B.!

Don’t Forget B.O.B.!

by: Kathryn Thomas

So you’ve got everything in place, busily working away for you. You’ve got your banners out, you’ve exchanged links, you’ve optimized your site for the search engines, you’ve got ad and P.P.C. campaigns bringing site visitors, your sales copy is converting them to customers or getting them on your list. But did you forget B.O.B.?

B.O.B. the Best Of Both worlds. Man does not live on the Internet alone, you know. Those same people who become your customers online actually live and breathe in the outside world. Let B.O.B. help you integrate the outside world to the Web world, and increase your bottom line.

There are many ways to bring in additional streams of income using B.O.B.

One of the best ways, of course, is by referrals. Just as you use testimonials on your site, also get your customers to refer you to others on the outside. REMIND them (frequently) to tell their family, friends, and business buddies about your site. Getting a short and memorable Domain Name definitely helps in this regard.

Providing a special incentive, such as a discount or gift to both your customer and her referral makes both of them feel that you are giving them a special deal. People like to feel special, and they like special deals that others can’t get. This adds to customer satisfaction, which will, in turn, get you more referrals.

Thus, one more stream of happy buyers!

Another technique is using business cards as ads to increase your online sales. A properly designed business card for this purpose would be geared toward getting the cardholder to visit your site. Don’t just put your name and website on the card! Give them a reason to go there. Give them an incentive, or make them curious enough to want to check it out. Also, don’t try to sell your product on your card just create enough interest to get them to your site, where your sales copy will either get the sale, or get them on your golden list!

Whatever you do, don’t mislead the prospect just to get them to your site! That will only serve to use up your bandwidth, and irritate what could have been your newest customer.

Be sure to give your card out everywhere you go the gas station, the grocery store, the restaurant, the mall, the symphony, the museum everywhere.

Leave a trail of cards behind you one more easy technique to add to your bottom line!

There are many more ways to increase your online sales by coordinating the outside world with your Internet marketing techniques. Be creative in your integration, and you will find your site getting more and more visitors.

So don’t forget to use B.O.B. (Best Of Both worlds) in every marketing campaign to build your business to the max!

About The Author

Kathryn Thomas, born, raised, and living in Texas, believes in doing things in a BIG way. Be sure to visit her at http://www.HeresTheMoney.com to see the $100,000/mo. income plan. Yes, thatกs per MONTH!

[email protected]

This article was posted on October 05, 2003

by Kathryn Thomas

Interviews with WellKnown Ezine Writers #1: Bob

Interviews with WellKnown Ezine Writers #1: Bob Leduc

by: Michael Southon

MS: Bob, how important have Ezine Articles been in achieving your success in online business?

BL: Very important! Most of what I learned 6 or 7 years ago about doing business on the Internet came from articles written by others already working online. Today, most of my new customers and clients are generated by the articles I write.

MS: How long have you been writing Ezine Articles and what are the main topics that you write about in your Ezine Articles?

BL: Iกve been writing Ezine articles for 5 years and I mainly write about Marketing and Sales

MS: Bob, amongst all the promotion techniques you use, how important are Ezine articles?

BL: 1st …by a large margin

MS: Are there other techniques you use?

BL: Yes. I also do off line promotions by postcard.

MS: Bob, what sort of articles have you had most success with? In your experience, what kind of Articles are most in demand?

BL: กHow toก articles about how to find more prospects and customers or how to close more sales. Iกve been very successful at building my own business and helping other business owners build theirs. I write about the things I learned and use …and tailor my writing specifically to help other small business owners.

MS: Some Ezine Writers promote a product or service in their Resource Box, while others aim only to get a subscription to their free Newsletter. What would your advice be for getting maximum results from your Resource Box?

BL: Both methods are effective. To generate the maximum response the byline must offer the reader an enticing benefit.

MS: What have you found to be the most effective ways of getting your Articles published?

BL: Building my own list of publishers who requested articles from me.

MS: Apart from getting your Articles published in Newsletters, are there any other ways you use your Articles to promote your website? (such as turning them into a free EBook)?

BL: A few of my articles are in eBooks. 32 of them are compiled into a print publication titled, กHow To Build A HighProfit Business On A LowImpact Budgetก (http://BobLeduc.com/highprofit.htm)

MS: Bob, is there any particular program or software that you find especially useful as an Ezine Writer?

BL: Yes. 2 programs:

#1. MS Word. I use this word processor to write my articles. I created a template with the formatting I want for writing articles. The built in word count tool helps me control the size of an article as I write. Then I can save the article as plain text with line breaks at 60 characters per line ..the format I use for submitting to publishers.

#2: I use WorldMerge by ColoradoSoft to email articles to the publishers on my list. It creates individual email messages with personalized information merged into each.

MS: It sometimes seems that everything that could possibly be written about has already been written about. What would be your response to that?

BL: Maybe every subject was been written about. But not every aspect of every subject has been covered. Plus, the world is changing FAST. Every change creates more things to write about.

MS: What would you say is the single most important style tip for writing a good Ezine Article?

BL: Make your articles easy to read. Use simple, easy to understand words and examples. This is easy if you only write about things you do yourself or things you learned yourself by trial and error.

MS: And finally Bob, what would be your advice to someone who wants to write Ezine Articles but has never written for the Internet before?

BL: (1) Recognize that most of the articles you read were written by someone just like you. (2) Choose a topic you know a lot about from personal experience ..even if others already wrote articles about it. Then force yourself to start writing YOUR article on that topic.

MS: Thank you Bob.

(c) 2002 by Michael Southon

About The Author

Michael Southon has been writing for the Internet for over 3 years. He has shown hundreds of webmasters how to use this simple technique to get massive free publicity and dramatically increase traffic and sales. Click here to find out more: http://www.ezinewriter.com

This Article may be freely published in its entirety exactly as it appears above. No alterations or changes to the Article are allowed, without the express permission of the Author. The Resource Box must remain with the Article just as it appears.

This article was posted on July 31, 2002

by Michael Southon

Cheap Web Hosting, What To Look For And What To St

Cheap Web Hosting, What To Look For And What To Stay Away From

by: Robert Lang

ขBargains for sale, Unlimited Hosting for only a Dollar.ข
ขGet your hosting here, 50 cents for the first three months. ข
ขUse now. Pay laterข.
In today’s world of hosting, instead of who’s got the bigger and better thing, it’s who has it for the cheapest and don’t forget that they usually it at an ขunlimited levelข. But if everyone is offering the same control panel, running off of the same type of servers or even from the same data center, why not get it for the cheapest price you can? The reason is, even though the servers may be the same, the service varies with each company and price. This is not to say that the cheapest can’t offer the best service but always remember the old adage ขyou get what you pay forข.
Let’s break down the costs involved with running a small hosting company that manages a few, lowcost servers from a reputable data center. The dedicated server business has grown within the last few years and competition has created the availability of unmanaged, lowcost server rentals that can range as low as $49 per month.
For our case study, let’s pretend that Bob has leased a server from a reputable data center at an average price of $89 per month. He was even lucky enough to signup during a special that waived the setup fees. At a cost of $89, he now has his own dedicated Unix server running one of the more popular control panels that regular hosting customers like to use. Like many small one or twoman hosting companies, he runs the business out of his house as it would be almost impossible to actually obtain office space on location of the data center, not to mention that he could be in one state and the server might be three states over. Leasing a dedicated server means that he is not responsible for the hardware and only has to maintain the software. This frees Bob up from the added expenses of hardware replacement and allows him to concentrate his investment on marketing, software, scripts and service.
Bob is an extremely good salesman and has a mature understanding of how to run a business. His best friend Billy has a vast knowledge of managing a server and its software, so together; they will be able to manage most common aspects of the business on a day to day basis.
They have purchased or designed a nice website and spent the average of $600 for support items such as tutorials and a customer forum. With the website design and extras, their initial investment averaged at $1000 which they hope to recoup within the first six months of operation. Now, this may be an added cost that some small hosting companies avoid at the beginning, but try to remember, if they are serious about running a company, they will put some type of investment into it. Taking the initial investment spread over 6 months and adding the cost of servers at $89 for the first one, Billy and Bob are spending more than $250 monthly during the first six months of operation on minimum expenses. This does not include other expenses such as their salaries and outside expenses such as phone bills (if they offer phone support), utilities, advertising expenses, etc.
An average amount of customers or domains to have on an individual server is 200 and since Bob is starting out with a new company and no customers, he can acquire 2530 customers monthly if he works really hard at it. To fill a server, they would need eight months of growth, and that doesn’t include the costs involved during that time. The cost of operation during those eight months is estimated at $1700, without any extra expenses and no personal income derived from the venture. If they were to charge $2 per customer on a recurring monthly basis and signed up 25 customers per month, they’d make $100 profit at the end of 8 months. Remember, this is done without any personal income made at all. Once they add in an advertising budget and allotment for person income for Bob and Billy, the cost jumps dramatically. They aren’t in the business to make friends, they are in it to make money and $100 spread over eight months is not much.
Let’s start adding a small income for Bob and Billy of $1000 monthly each and an advertising budget of $500 per month in order to acquire those customers and calculate what they need to charge to break even after those first eight months. A safe estimate would be $3,000 monthly to cover salaries, server cost, advertising and other miscellaneous items. If they were able to signup 200 customers during the first eight months, they would need to charge $15 per customer to cover the $3000 monthly overhead. If they charged only $2 per customer, they would need to signup an estimate of 2,000 customers to do the same. Because Bob and Billy decided to charge only $2 per customer, they have to support 2,000 customers by themselves because they don’t have enough profit to hire any more technicians.
As a customer, you need to realize these things before you start shopping for a hosting company. Now that you are educated on the backend of a hoster’s life, you can ask yourself what type of company do you want hosting your website and what kind of website you need hosted. If you are running a small personal site that doesn’t need constant uptime and special scripts, then you could choose one of the many free or low cost hosting solutions available. If the company was to go under or lost all of your information due to hardware or software failure, then you are really not at a lost because your website did not contain critical information.
But what if your site does contain critical information and is the lifeblood of your company? Then don’t go cheap. Research your options, find the one with the best solutions and don’t be afraid to spend more for less. It is very important to find a stable company with quality support and service and that doesn’t come cheap. Make sure that if your information is critical, the company offers reliable backup solutions and has a reasonable uptime.
Phone support is a must for quick response and let’s not forget the numbers 24/7. Hosting companies with higher price tags can afford to hire the extra technicians to hold your hand as you build your web presence and your company, which can be important in today’s market.
But does all of this mean that cheap hosting is a bad venture and should be avoided? Not really, just remember, ขYou get what you paid for.ข

About The Author

Robert Lang

websitehostdirectory.com

[email protected]

The WebSite Host Directory is a resource for webmasters and consumers looking to find a website hosting company or a quality expiring domain name, Robert Lang is a contributing writer for Techpad Agency and PingZine Magazine
This article may be reprinted or published without the authors consent as long as the ขAboutข and ขweblinksข are kept intact. If you publish this article, we would love to know the location. Feel free to email us.

This article was posted on May 25, 2004

by Robert Lang

If You Sell Anything Online Your ePockets Are Bein

If You Sell Anything Online Your ePockets Are Being Picked

by: Shawn Pringle

You and I are a lot alike. We are both software publishers and eBook authors getting hosed on a regular basis. You and I, my friend, are victims of software piracy that accounted for over $24 BILLION dollars in lost revenue over the last two years1. There are so many ways people can get your product for free these days. If we continue doing nothing we will lose even more money this year as potential customers become more and more aware of just how easy it is to obtain digital products without paying for them.

The question is, why do we put up with this? When we sell our downloadable products they are being easily and freely distributed (read: STOLEN) by the very same people that we are trying to get to purchase. And don’t be fooled, this still occurs very regularly today even though a lot of us take precautions against it. This confirms that people want our products, they just don’t want to pay for them …because they don’t have to. In fact, 70% of potential customers won’t if they can get it for free2.

We know the ideal scenario; what’s supposed to happen. Consider Bob Jones and his knot tying eBook, ขScoutmaster Bob’s Guide To Knotsข. Bob uploads his eBook to his web server and creates a sales link to sell it, and this sales link goes through to his payment processor. After the order is placed the customer is redirected to the download page, or ‘thankYouก page, in order to automate the delivery process.

Now Bob figures he’s all set up and starts his massive promotion efforts. He spends lots of time and money getting people to visit his site and convinces them to place an order because it really is a great product. So, the customers place orders via the sales link then are redirected back to the download page automatically to get what they’ve paid for. Perfect automated system, right? Sorry Bobby, in a perfect world maybe. But here’s what really happens.

ขBack Doorข #1:

Our boy Bob sets up a sales link, a download redirection link (where people go after successfully ordering) and spends time and money promoting his site. People come and visit his web site and feel that they could really use such an extensive knot tying resource and want a copy of it. A couple people place orders and Bob is happy. Because Bob has created such a great product they tell their friends about Bob’s eBook. But instead of telling their friends to check out Bob’s web site they simply email them a copy of the actual eBook. Why not, it doesn’t cost Bob any money right? Those people then tell their friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends. A couple of weeks later Bob’s knot tying eBook is in the hands of hundreds, even thousands of people…for free. And this is just the first ขback doorข.

There are three (3) กBack Doorsก that people use regularly to easily obtain free access to your product:

Back Door #1: Get a copy via email, newsgroups, forums, eBay, whatever

Back Door #2: Get refunded and keep the product

Back Door #3: Locate the download page without paying

And here’s another scary fact: For every 10 copies downloaded, 4 of those are stolen2. How lightly would you take it if you sold a tangible product, like a tshirt, and only 6 out of ten tshirts that left the store were paid for? These are lost sales and income forgone, there’s no more blunt way to put it. If you can guarantee that the only way they can get your product is through your payment process you’ve just stopped that leak and increased your profits.

But right now online merchants have no idea who is really downloading their products, or what happens after the downloaded. They lose total control of its distribution. Some thieves/weasels/snakes …whatever you want to call them… even go so far as to sell stolen software and eBooks as their own for a greatly reduced price. This is probably the greatest risk to selling a digital product, and if you ask anyone that’s been doing it for a while they will have experienced this nightmare first hand.

The people out there that do this are much worse than one guy that just gets your product for free. These people distribute hundreds or thousands of your product and you don’t see a cent of it. They saturate the market and decrease the value of your product, until it’s virtually worthless. They have to be stopped.

ขBack Doorข #2:

Back to Bob. There is another big problem for Bob when it comes to protecting his eBook. He doesn’t know that many payment processors promptly, and without hesitation, honor each and every refund request, no questions asked. Seriously…no questions at all, one simple email is all it takes. Thereกs usually no need for the customer to explain anything, just that they would like a refund. They will get their refund right away and the you, the merchant, don’t have a say in the matter at all. And you guessed it, they get to keep the product, for free. There is no requirement to return the product like with a traditional refund, since thereกs no way to be sure the product was really deleted. Imagine the absolute uproar brickandmortar merchants would be in if customers were allowed 100% unconditional refunds on request, and the customer gets to keep the shirt, vacuum cleaner, DVD player, or whatever? Ridiculous right? But it happens to online merchants like Bob every day.

ขBack Doorข #3:

Lastly, Bob’s uploaded product is also easily and regularly downloaded for free by potential customers right from his own web site. People can get to his download page in any number of ways. For example, open up Google. Type this into the search box: ขthankyou.htm ebook downloadข. Now go to the second and third pages. Here are some free products for you if you were the type to download copyrighted material without paying for it. Of course I’m not suggesting you do that, in fact I ask you NOT to download these products, just look at the thank you page to see that the ขback doorข is certainly easy to find. These people are just like Bob, and they work hard to create their web sites and their products. They are simply unaware of the kickintheteeth they’re taking by not protecting it.

Some conscientious merchants claim, กIกm safe, I protect my download location with a thirdparty tool that creates my download location on the fly.ก This is a false sense of security and it only blocks one back door. Basically this protection method simply hides the download location, but the product is still just as susceptible to being freely distributed after the download. And it can still be kept if a refund is issued. This is equivalent to the banks simply hiding all the money instead of putting it in the bank vault.

So how are online merchants like Bob, and you, and me supposed to stay afloat? As it is now, the only way to turn a profit is to rely on people’s goodwill in hopes that they will do the right thing. And be content in the fact that some people don’t know how easy it is to get online products for free, so these people actually pay for the product. So, if you think about it, within this system itกs pure luck that anyone actually pays for a digital product.

But there is hope. There is a real way to stop all types of thieves and freebieseekers. We must protect the product itself with unique identifiers and access codes for each customer. And until more of us become wise to this one simple truth rampant software and eBook piracy will continue to plague online merchants.

1 average 40% worldwide software piracy rate for 2001 & 2002, and dollar losses totaling $24.05 billion, based on intensive studies by the Business Software Alliance http://www.bsa.org .

2 Based on the Business Software Alliance report กQuantifying Online Downloading of Unlicensed Software :

Survey of Internet Users for BSA May 29, 2002ก,

Copyright 2004 Shawn Pringle

About The Author

Shawn Pringle is the owner and founder of the Virtual Vault digital product security system. Read his story and how he fought back at http://www.CBProtect.com Email him at [email protected].

This article was posted on March 12, 2004

by Shawn Pringle

I Don’t Need A Website!….Do I?

I Don’t Need A Website!….Do I?

by: Janice D. Byer, MVA

Once upon a time, in a small home office, a busy entrepreneur wondered why he wasn’t quite as busy as he would like to be. ขI market my business as much as possibleข, said the entrepreneur, who has implemented many marketing procedures while running his business.

Our entrepreneur, we’ll call him Bob, runs a computer repair business. His services allow him to provide his clients with his expert advise, either in their offices, by email, or on the phone. Because of this, Bob has a large potential market, both locally and internationally.

Bob has a great brochure, filled with all his features and benefits; he attends as many networking events as he can; he advertises in the local newspapers; and he has a huge ad in the yellow pages. But, Bob doesn’t have a website. Why?

ขI don’t need a website, do I?ข asks Bob. ขI do everything else possible to market my business and I also get many customers by referrals. Why would I need a website?ข

Glad you asked Bob! Let’s see if we can’t outline some of the benefits of having a website… both locally and internationally…

Your website is a live brochure that is available for anyone to see from anywhere, no matter if they are 5 miles away or 5000 miles away.

For potential local clients, they may first find your company in the yellow pages but, if they are looking for more information about you and the services you offer, the Internet is one of the first places they will look to do their research.

Many potential long distance clients may be in different time zones or would rather not make a long distance call. Because of these factors, the Internet is where they would go for more information. Having a website enables your information to be available anytime and, by including your email address on your site, they have a cheaper and more convenient of contacting you.

Your website allows you to create and show much more of your information than a print ad or brochure. The more information you provide, the more likely a potential client will be to buy from you as they can see everything they need to know. You can even include a little something extra, such as tips and resources, to help your clients see your dedication to providing topnotch customer service.

Your website also allows you to be more creative in how your present your information than with something that is in print. You can add bells and whistles (but not too many) that show that can be creative in your efforts.

Many people use the Internet to find out more information about products or services that they are in need of. Your website is a means of offering information to those who may be researching online before buying. If you don’t have a website, how are they going to even get a chance to see what you have to offer?

In the same respect, if a potential client has heard about you but can’t find your business card, they may turn to the Internet to try and locate your contact information or to learn more about you.

Your website opens the door to a larger market of prospective clients. Even if your service is normally only preformed locally, there is always the potential to expand. And, you are more likely to increase your local client base if your website is available for them to research your service.

Even if you cater to only a specific clientele, your website can be a place for them to visit or where they can point others to who they are referring to you.

Your website is the one piece of marketing material that is easy to change without a huge cost. So, if you have a special event coming up or you want to include more information on a certain service, you simply have your web designer make the change. And, almost instantly, your information is fresh and visible, without the costs of reprinting new marketing material.

We could go on and on about the benefits of having a website. In short, having a website is the ‘way to go’ these days and, if your company does not have a website, are you losing customers? Are they finding your competition when using the Internet but not you? Are they wondering why you do not have a website when all of your competition does?

Your website is your company’s 24 hour advertising medium. Why wouldn’t you consider having one? Bob?

About The Author

Janice Byer is a certified Master Virtual Assistant and owner of DocuType Administrative & Web Design Services (http://www.docutype.net). See this and other articles on her website.

[email protected]

This article was posted on December 18, 2002

by Janice D. Byer, MVA

How My Friend Bob Went From Being A Failure To A W

How My Friend Bob Went From Being A Failure To A Winner By Taking Intelligent Action

by: Hans Klein

Let me tell you story about a friend of mine who used to be a complete failure. His name was Bob. My friend Bob was the type of guy who always was looking for instant riches, but never could seem to find them.

He jumped from one business opportunity to the next one and each time the people who sold Bob the business opportunity claimed they were going to make my friend Bob a millionaire, quickly and easily with little effort on his part.

I often visited my friend Bob, and every time Bob always would talk about his latest and greatest venture. Each time, I would tell Bob how he could use the internet to promote his venture, and each time he would get excited and say, ‘that sounds greatก.

But, whenever it was time for Bob to take action, he was always busy with his fulltime job, his favorite TV program was on, or he had some other task to accomplish.

This went on for several years, and I lost touch with Bob. But, recently, when I ran into Bob again at the local grocery store, I asked him what he was up to, and this is what he said:

กI am doing the best Iกve ever done in my entire life. I quit my crappy job; I have more time to spend with my family, and I just bought a new carก.

I said, ‘thatกs great. What happened?ก

กWell, I finally got tired of having no money and working at my deadend job. So, I went into business for myself and quit my job.ก

I asked Bob, กWeren’t you scared?ก

Bob said, กNo, because I finally did something I should have done a long time ago. I first identified what I wanted and then I worked my butt off to get it!ก

Later, I found out that it took my friend a good 8 months of hard work to discover what he wanted to sell, and he used the power of the internet to create a profitable business.

Like my friend Bob, you, too, have the power to achieve success using the internet if you only follow the same process.

I like to call what Bob did กintelligent actionก because he was intelligent by first identifying what he wanted and then taking action to reach his goal.

Before he took intelligent action, Bob was practicing insanity. He kept on pursuing the same easy riches, each time expecting a different result.

Are you practicing insanity? If so, here are the five steps of intelligent action:

Create a picture of what you want. To do this, you must determine what you are passionate about or care about most.

Create time to do it. Give up your favorite TV show or little chores until you get it done.

Do your research into how to accomplish your goal. This will save you time and effort if you know what you are doing.

Get help from those who have knowledge of how to accomplish your goal whenever you are stuck.

Take the risk to succeed. The internet is just like any business. You can make or lose money, but you are never going to get anywhere unless you take a risk to get what you want.

In short, if you act with a clear sense of purpose and direction because you know what your really want, then fear and doubt will be replaced with faith that you will get what you really want.

Before you leave here are some words that hold true today just as they did over 50 years ago.

กA man is the sum of his actions, of what he has done, of what he can do, Nothing else.ก Mahatma Gandhi (18691948)

© Hans Klein All rights reserved

About The Author

Discover how you can start taking intelligent action and explode your website traffic by subscribing to the most exciting a profit producing electronic magazine on the internet by visiting http://www.WealthStarters.com or by sending a blank email to mailto:[email protected]

This article was posted on November 10, 2003

by Hans Klein

If You Sell Anything Online Your ePockets Are Bein

If You Sell Anything Online Your ePockets Are Being Picked

by: Shawn Pringle

You and I are a lot alike. We are both software publishers and eBook authors getting hosed on a regular basis. You and I, my friend, are victims of software piracy that accounted for over $24 BILLION dollars in lost revenue over the last two years*. There are so many ways people can get your product for free these days. If we continue doing nothing we will lose even more money this year as potential customers become more and more aware of just how easy it is to obtain digital products without paying for them.

The question is, why do we put up with this? When we sell our downloadable products they are being easily and freely distributed (read: STOLEN) by the very same people that we are trying to get to purchase. And don’t be fooled, this still occurs very regularly today even though a lot of us take precautions against it. This confirms that people want our products, they just don’t want to pay for them …because they don’t have to. In fact, 70% of potential customers won’t if they can get it for free*.

We know the ideal scenario; what’s supposed to happen. Consider Bob Jones and his knot tying eBook, ขScoutmaster Bob’s Guide To Knotsข. Bob uploads his eBook to his web server and creates a sales link to sell it, and this sales link goes through to his payment processor. After the order is placed the customer is redirected to the download page, or ‘thankYouก page, in order to automate the delivery process.

Now Bob figures he’s all set up and starts his massive promotion efforts. He spends lots of time and money getting people to visit his site and convinces them to place an order because it really is a great product. So, the customers place orders via the sales link then are redirected back to the download page automatically to get what they’ve paid for. Perfect automated system, right? Sorry Bobby, in a perfect world maybe. But here’s what really happens.

ขBack Doorข #1:

Our boy Bob sets up a sales link, a download redirection link (where people go after successfully ordering) and spends time and money promoting his site. People come and visit his web site and feel that they could really use such an extensive knot tying resource and want a copy of it. A couple people place orders and Bob is happy. Because Bob has created such a great product they tell their friends about Bob’s eBook. But instead of telling their friends to check out Bob’s web site they simply email them a copy of the actual eBook. Why not, it doesn’t cost Bob any money right? Those people then tell their friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends. A couple of weeks later Bob’s knot tying eBook is in the hands of hundreds, even thousands of people…for free. And this is just the first ขback doorข.

There are three (3) กBack Doorsก that people use regularly to easily obtain free access to your product:

Back Door #1: Get a copy via email, newsgroups, forums, eBay, MSN, ICQ, … whatever

Back Door #2: Get refunded and keep the product

Back Door #3: Locate the download page without paying

And here’s another scary fact: For every 10 copies downloaded, 4 of those are stolen*. How lightly would you take it if you sold a tangible product, like a tshirt, and only 6 out of ten tshirts that left the store were paid for? These are lost sales and income forgone, there’s no more blunt way to put it. If you can guarantee that the only way they can get your product is through your payment process you’ve just stopped that leak and increased your profits.

But right now online merchants have no idea who is really downloading their products, or what happens after the downloaded. They lose total control of its distribution. Some thieves/weasels/snakes …whatever you want to call them… even go so far as to sell stolen software and eBooks as their own for a greatly reduced price. This is probably the greatest risk to selling a digital product, and if you ask anyone that’s been doing it for a while they will have experienced this nightmare first hand. The people out there that do this are much worse than one guy that just gets your product for free. These people distribute hundreds or thousands of your product and you don’t see a cent of it. They saturate the market and decrease the value of your product, until it’s virtually worthless. They have to be stopped.

ขBack Doorข #2:

Back to Bob. There is another big problem for Bob when it comes to protecting his eBook. He doesn’t know that many payment processors promptly, and without hesitation, honor each and every refund request, no questions asked. Seriously…no questions at all, one simple email is all it takes. Thereกs usually no need for the customer to explain anything, just that they would like a refund. They will get their refund right away and the you, the merchant, don’t have a say in the matter at all. And you guessed it, they get to keep the product, for free. There is no requirement to return the product like with a traditional refund, since thereกs no way to be sure the product was really deleted. Imagine the absolute uproar brickandmortar merchants would be in if customers were allowed 100% unconditional refunds on request, and the customer gets to keep the shirt, vacuum cleaner, DVD player, or whatever? Ridiculous right? But it happens to online merchants like Bob every day.

ขBack Doorข #3:

Lastly, Bob’s uploaded product is also easily and regularly downloaded for free by potential customers right from his own web site. People can get to his download page in any number of ways. For example, open up Google. Type this into the search box: ขthankyou.htm ebook downloadข. Now go to the second and third pages. Here are some free products for you if you were the type to download copyrighted material without paying for it. Of course I’m not suggesting you do that, in fact I ask you NOT to download these products, just look at the thank you page to see that the ขback doorข is certainly easy to find. These people are just like Bob, and they work hard to create their web sites and their products. They are simply unaware of the kickintheteeth they’re taking by not protecting it.

Some conscientious merchants claim, กIกm safe, I protect my download location with a thirdparty tool that creates my download location on the fly.ก This is a false sense of security and it only blocks one back door. Basically this protection method simply hides the download location, but the product is still just as susceptible to being freely distributed after the download. And it can still be kept if a refund is issued. This is equivalent to the banks simply hiding all the money instead of putting it in the bank vault.

So how are online merchants like Bob, and you, and me supposed to stay afloat? As it is now, the only way to turn a profit is to rely on people’s goodwill in hopes that they will do the right thing. And be content in the fact that some people don’t know how easy it is to get online products for free, so these people actually pay for the product. So, if you think about it, within this system itกs pure luck that anyone actually pays for a digital product.

But there is hope. There is a real way to stop all types of thieves and freebieseekers. We must protect the product itself with unique identifiers and access codes for each customer. And until more of us become wise to this one simple truth rampant software and eBook piracy will continue to plague online merchants.

* average 40% worldwide software piracy rate for 2001 & 2002, and dollar losses totaling $24.05 billion, based on intensive studies by the Business Software Alliance http://www.bsa.org, and the report กQuantifying Online Downloading of Unlicensed Software : Survey of Internet Users for BSA May 29, 2002ก

About The Author

Shawn Pringle is the owner and founder of the Virtual Vault digital product security system. Read his story and how he fought back at http://www.CBProtect.com Email him at [email protected]

This article was posted on March 21, 2004

by Shawn Pringle